DOUBLE CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI MUFFINS

Do you have a hard time getting your kids to eat their veggies? Sometimes I do… and sometimes I don’t. My kids are weird like that! No seriously, one day avocados are there favorite food and they’ll eat a whole one in less than 15 minutes. The next day, they won’t touch it. Randomly, Lanae will grab the cherry tomatoes out of the fridge and tell me she wants them for her snack, but then if I pull them out again… won’t touch ’em! It’s a tough game we play!

The truth is, most of the time I like my veggies, but sometimes I don’t. But I know they are good for me, so I keep eating them. I always offer my kids fruits and veggies and other healthy snacks. I’ve learned that even if they don’t touch them one day, I never know if they will the next. So I keep trying. In our house we have a two bite rule. They have to try everything, then if they don’t like it, we’ll save it for later or in some cases, just eat it ourselves.

This fickleness is what leads me to try and disguise some fruits and veggies in different shapes and forms. For example, muffins! My kids love muffins and when I’m on a role, I usually make 2-3 different kinds of muffins each month so they are used to having muffins for breakfast and snacks. Muffins are a great way to hide healthy things, but you have to be careful… some muffins are just cupcakes without frosting.

Not that there’s anything wrong with those… believe me, I love me a huge double chocolate muffin from Sam’s club every once in a while! But in reality, those muffins are kind of harsh on my thighs and mid-section and they usually don’t give me the energy I need to survive the day.

Anyway, getting to the point. I love chocolate muffins but I haven’t been able to justify making them for breakfast. That is until I decided that I wanted to find the perfect Chocolate Zucchini Muffin. I have now tried out half a dozen recipes and I finally found one that was light and delicious. Moist, but not rubbery. It’s a winner in my book. It does have a little more sugar than my other breakfast muffins, but I justify that by adding in a little bit of nutrition in other ways.

I’ll probably keep playing with the recipe to try to improve the nutrition factor, without losing the tastebuds approval. But for now, why mess with a good thing???

Double Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients

4 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 tsp vanilla
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup oat flour
2 cups white flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Combine the first 6 ingredients and mix well. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the zucchini mixture.

2. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon batter into a muffin tin with cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake @ 350 for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

3. Cool and sprinkle with a bit of powdered sugar. And ta-da!! Enjoy with a glass of milk…

Lemon Chicken & Zucchini Pasta